Preposition accuracy of English-speaking monolingual and Spanish-English bilingual children (4-6 y/o) in sentence repetition vs. comprehension task
Date of Submission
Spring 2024
Document Type
Closed Research Project
Degree Name
Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology
Department
Speech-Language Pathology
First Advisor
Lourdes Martinez-Nieto, PhD
Abstract
Prepositions are essential grammatical elements that convey semantic and syntactic relationships and are critical for academic language development. This study examined English preposition accuracy in Spanish–English bilingual and English monolingual children aged 4–6 years using both sentence repetition (production) and comprehension performance tasks. Sixteen children participated. The study investigated group differences, task differences, and preposition-specific difficulty patterns. Results indicated that monolingual children demonstrated higher overall accuracy than bilingual children in both production and comprehension tasks. Across groups, children showed higher accuracy in production than comprehension. The most difficult prepositions for both groups were between and over, whereas more concrete spatial prepositions (in, on, under) demonstrated higher accuracy. Findings suggest that bilingual children may experience increased difficulty with English prepositions due to cross-linguistic differences and dual language processing demands. Results highlight the importance of considering bilingual development when interpreting assessment outcomes and support the need for additional research with larger and more diverse bilingual samples.
Recommended Citation
Underwood, Lauren, "Preposition accuracy of English-speaking monolingual and Spanish-English bilingual children (4-6 y/o) in sentence repetition vs. comprehension task" (2024). Speech-Language Pathology Research Projects. 22.
https://scholarworks.atsu.edu/slp-researchprojects/22